James’ Research

April 4, 2017April 20, 2017 James Alexander Earl Research

Article Looking At Example of Creative Skills Being Learnt/Passed On

To get a good idea of how our podcast should sound, it is important to research some information before hand, and by looking at articles it will give a good insight into key examples that could in theory be turned into a podcast. The article that I looked at was from The Guardian, written by Martin Williams which is called “What’s the best way to teach languages?”

As soon as I found this article, I knew it would be useful because it focuses on the whole idea of teaching people things, which is the aim of our podcast, whether it’s in the form of learning it yourself, or being taught how to do something. The key element that is evident in this article is the idea of motivation, and the way in which inspiration works, with “the UK’s most multi-lingual student speaking 11 languages” (Williams, 2013) saying it is all down to the fact that he wanted to converse with any individual in the world in their native language.

As well as this, Luca Lampariello who speaks 12 languages, as well as being a language consultant says that languages “can only be learnt” (Williams, 2013) as opposed to them being taught. This means that teachers at schools are only there to motivate students with more interactive tasks nowadays, which will inspire them to learn outside of school too, which could be done by watching things such as foreign films.

Interviewing anyone from this article would obviously be an ideal element for any podcast, especially one that looks at passing on skills which is the whole idea of our project. This is because there are so many individuals that have a great passion and interest in learning languages, which would give them motivation to help teach the skill to other people in the future. This is highlighted by Richard Simcott, who is a hyper polyglot – which basically means a talented person who can learn a lot of languages very quickly. Richard “has studied more than 30 languages and can converse in around 20 of them”, which all begun when he was very young, and he would use platforms such as books, music and other interactive media to learn these.

Overall then, this article was ideal for the inspiration behind our piece, because we decided to use an individual who had taught herself English as a second language, so reading this piece before interviewing her would give us a range of questions to ask, such as why they taught themselves English, how they did it, and whether they would enjoy passing on the skill.

https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/may/14/best-way-teach-language-schools

Article Looking At Example of Practical Skills Being Learnt/Passed On

Although creative skills are always very impressive, practical skills have arguably even a bigger impact, because these are perhaps easier to pass on. Whilst individuals tend to be born with skills such as singing and writing, practical activities such as sports, cooking and family run businesses have a very tight interlink in the sense that teaching and learning is happening almost simultaneously. This meant that it would be useful to look at an article on an example of this, and I found a piece on Jamie Oliver’s website that was written by cookbook author Jody Vassallo which is called “Cooking together – a family tradition”.

This article immediately grabbed my attention, not only does the first bit “cooking together” strongly imply that there is a great deal of communication going on, the second bit helps emphasise this further by pointing out the family tradition, which basically confirms that there is an element of passing on happening, which is exactly the meaning of our podcast. The very first thing that she mentions is how that this tradition of passing on has been occurring for years and years, which means by nature it is always going to happen in almost any traditional family. Many centuries ago, mums would teach their daughters how to cook, and Jody refuses to believe that this tradition is dying. She says that she keeps this tradition alive by making as many friends as possibly in her local town, and will always seek out individuals if she is aware of them owning an interesting recipe. Not only is it “preserving a precious piece of history” (Vassallo, 2014), but it also allows her to get to know people, so whilst the tradition is still being maintained, individuals are able to build friendships as a result. From a personal point of view, I was taught by my grandmother how to cook various desserts, and Jody mentions this in her article, with people always telling her stories.

While this helps proves that the passing on of recipes is still strong, she also mentions at the end of the article how someone from her yoga class “adapted her mum’s recipe to use the local macadamias” to cook her own baklava. This brief point shows how the girl learnt the recipe off her mum while in her home country Lebanon, and was able to change this recipe slightly when moving to the UK.

This article was therefore very useful for our piece, because it helped us understand just how important cooking can be, not only in terms of tradition, but also through the enjoyment that can come through learning the activity. We are also going to interview a woman who is part of a family who pass on traditions of food, and focus on the aspect of “make do and mend” – which also links back to the article as Jody mentions how her friends always leave her food, which she can turn into a range of dishes.

http://www.jamieoliver.com/news-and-features/features/a-family-tradition/

Podcast Website Research – TED Talks

While last semester it was necessary to research radio stations such as BBC Radio 4 or Siren FM for our radio drama, our podcast this semester would probably fit onto a website where a range of podcasts are available, given that they are part of a genre where almost all the content is niche, and more specifically sought after than dramas, which appeal to a broader, less specific audience. This is backed up by the definition of a podcast which is – “a digital audio or video file or recording, usually part of a themed series, that can be downloaded from a website to a media player or computer” (Dictionary, 2017).

One of these websites is TED Talks, “a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks” (TED, 2017). It is already apparent that our piece – “Pass It On”, would not be out of place on a website on this – not only is it short (15 minute per podcast), but it also spreads ideas – the whole idea of our project is to pass on people’s skills, and by listening to the podcast, the audience may be inspired by a talent that someone possesses, and therefore want to try something new themselves. In their mission statement, they state that they want “to change attitudes, lives and, ultimately, the world” as well as making “great ideas accessible” (TED, 2017) and sparking discussion.

Therefore, it is evident from their short, but effective “about” section, that a podcast like ours, which focuses on the idea of learning, honing, and passing on a talent, would work very well on a website like this.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/podcast

https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization

Podcast Research – TED Talks – Eduardo Briceno: How to get better at the things you care about

Seeing as I researched the TED Talks website, and was able to make some conclusions from the “about” section, I thought it would be necessary to listen to one of the podcasts to see if my conclusions were correct. The podcast that I watched was a short speech from a man who explained how people could improve at things that they cared about in life, such as a job, hobby, or relationship. Already, we can tell that this will be about spreading ideas, while it also complies with their mission statement, as the aim is to help change people’s views towards the things they care about. He mentions that it is common for people to always try their best in life, but it can be hard for them to get better at the things they want to improve at. The main thing he focuses on is for a good balance between learning and performing – you need to learn how to improve at certain activities, whilst performing this activity in the best way that you can. This balance therefore helps an individual transfer these improvements into their next performance, which could be common in an area such as singing or acting. The issue he picks up on is that most people spend time performing without learning, because they think that their adequate standard is good enough already, and are scared of making mistakes while learning. Finally, the 4 main pointers to succeeding is to believe, want to improve, know how to improve, while being in a low mistake situation.

This piece was an inspiration for our project because the way Eduardo spoke was so motivating and powerful, this meant that we wanted our contributors to all have something unique, which would make the audience feel inspired, and not just settle for second best, but to try new things and perhaps change their lives. The fact that only one individual was present in this podcast meant that with 5 participants in ours, we could easily recreate the feeling that the audience would feel from this TED Talks piece, which to me was a good balance between humour, but significant realisation about what can happen if we work very hard in life.

https://www.ted.com/talks/eduardo_briceno_how_to_get_better_at_the_things_you_care_about

Copyright

April 4, 2017April 4, 2017 James Alexander Earl Paperwork

With our music being made by Adam, the only thing we needed to complete report forms for were the content that we included in our podcasts that were provided by our contributors. This included things such as the bagpipe playing from Cassandre, Will’s book, and Craig’s piece of music. We simply asked them to write their name, piece of work that they were contributing, the length of the piece, as well as their signature. This is highlighted by the photographs above, and the template we tried to stick to is highlighted more clearly in the document below. The consent forms will not be uploaded on this blog because they contain personal contact information, so instead they’ll be uploaded straight to blackboard.

Report Form

Map Form

April 4, 2017April 4, 2017 James Alexander Earl Paperwork

The map form for this project was needed for the interviews that took place off the University campus. Although there weren’t many of these, Adam still needed to visit the Drill Hall to get an interview with Gemma, all about poetry. The majority of the other interviews took place in the University, as this was the easiest meeting point for people, but a MAP form was still necessary just incase we had to go elsewhere to record. The images above show the proof that it was completed by us and approved by Dylan, while the below attachment also highlights the template more visibly.

Map Form

Scripts

April 4, 2017 James Alexander Earl Paperwork

Although we didn’t need a script because our podcast consisted of interviews and chatty speech between James, Adam and Jess, we still needed pointers to help us out. As a result, for the interview section we had a set of questions that we would stick to which would allow our podcast to flow much more smoothly. It was also necessary to remember to branch off the questions during the interviewing, to ensure we could probe for more answers, and let them go off on more tangents to discover their true opinions and back story. We would also need to take into account their skill that they possess, and tailor questions around the hobby, but the following questions were used just to create some sort of structure to each interview:

1. Name and bit about yourself, what skill is it you have?

2. When did the skill start and how did you get involved?

3. In the beginning were you mentored or influenced by someone that spurred you on?

4. A far as your skill goes you seem very natural (advanced/gifted), how much practice does it take to get to this stage or have you always had a knack for it?

5. Where and when (how often) in your life do you do your skill, is anyone else involved with it?

6. In terms of passing on skills and learning that isn’t in the standard prescribed curriculum, how significant is the skill in your mind?

For the speech part of the podcast, we needed a brief structure a well, so we knew who was leading which interview discussion, as well as what points we would cover, this is illustrated in the below PDF.

Script Pass It On Podcast 1

Team Profile

April 4, 2017April 5, 2017 James Alexander Earl Home Page

AJJ Productions

James Earl, Adam South, Jess Kelsey

Our production name ‘AJJ Productions’, came about in the first semester of third year when we first decided to work as a group. This simply uses the first initials of each of our first names, which we thought worked quite well as a team name. James and Jess were going to initially work on a crime drama at the beginning of the year, but we were alerted that Adam needed a group, and we are very pleased that we agreed to let him join us! His uncle was the inspiration behind our first team drama, which was in the crime category, but was more of a docu-drama because of the way the main character narrated the story, and looked back on flashbacks from his life before, during and after prison. Everyone that listened to it noted how powerful and effective the structure was, and the end quote of “it could’ve happened to anyone, but it happened to me” really made people understand that good people can sometimes unfortunately get into trouble.

Although we enjoyed making this radio drama, we wanted to try something new for our final ever university project, and something that James and Jess wanted to focus on was a live show, because they both love the idea of radio – highlighted by the fact that James has a weekly show on Brayford Radio. Adam liked this idea too, but also liked the concept of creating another piece of “inspirational” radio, and therefore came up with the “Pass It On” idea. Although he was skeptical to come out with the idea initially, James and Jess both loved it, because we realised that we could incorporate our own speech into the podcast, so the sense of live radio would still exist.

The reason we have worked so well as a group is because we get along so well, and all know what is required of each of us. In the first and second semester, James was the producer because of his organisational skills, and was good at securing actors, looking after the paperwork, and overseeing the edit, while Adam and Jess were BA and director in semester 1, before referring the roles for the “Pass It On” project. Adam worked very well as a BA and director because he could show off his fantastic editing skills, while his passionate way of communication made him suit the role of director. Jess’ friendly manner also allowed her to be a good director during the radio drama, while she was very much new to the editing game in “Pass It On”, but did a very successful job of putting our final podcasts together.

Although our time at the University of Lincoln is coming to an end, we have enjoyed every minute of working together as a group! The aim of “Pass It On” is to highlight the local talent, and hopefully inspire the listeners and get everyone in this world to try something new. The journey to achieve this aim has not been an easy one, but the hard work by James, Adam and Jess has ensured that final project is as entertaining and informative as possible, we hope you enjoy it!